Owl's Clover

Has anyone tried growing it? It is partially parasitic and Las Pilitas says it is difficult under garden conditions. It is a little late for this year, but I got some seed from Larner Seeds, a great place for natives, and plan on trying it. I was wondering if there was anything special I needed to do.

Cannot leave a message out there without a reply. I guess I will try it tomorrow and see what happens. One of my brothers lives in the country and says it is all over up there, I could just come and dig up some of his. It is worth the experiment, though it is getting late. I would like to try some Indian Paintbrushes as well, they are parasitic on certain grasses.

I saw a whole hill of Indian Paintbrushes in Reche Canyon the past few days on the slope of someone's home. Next time I go through there I will try to take a photo if they are still in bloom. I'm also trying to go Native, but it will be an awful long time for me to get there.

I am not a purist at all. Owl's clover grows over the Cuesta Grade from us. It might be too cool for it here. I try to grow what will work here without regard to whether it is a native. Aussie and South African plants that require dry summers wet winters do very well here and they are amongst my favorites. But, CA natives do well here as well. So, I try to put them together and see how it works out.

Chuck,

I do have some seed, but didn't get much of it in the ground this year -- just a small sample I spread late that didn't come up. :-( A shame I didn't have it earlier, with all the rain we had. Will try for next spring, though.

Will be interested to see what luck you have.

It is pretty late but tomorrow I will seed them. I am not sure of the germination time, but the natives generally have been quite a bit slower. I have been clearing things out of the seed palace to make room. Given I water only with drip it is going to be an interesting problem figuring out how to water them, since with no more rain likely they are going to need it.

Well two rows are in the incubator. We shall see how long it takes.

No sprouts yet and two weeks. I did find some growing about a half-mile away, so that is encouraging for planting out when they finally do come up.

A few of the owl's clover have sprouted. They look exactly like minature owl's clover. I did not plant very many as this more of an experiment. I suspect that if you want a lot you are going to have to sow a tray fairly heavily. I would be inclined to gather my own seed from nearby. The crotalaria and erythrina are planted nearby and they are huge.

Wow, that took a while, didn't it? Now to see if they 'take' when you transplant them?

Yes, it will be a while. They were just about the last of that tray to come up. The streptocarpus haven't sprouted yet and couple of others. But most of the rest are already outside waiting to get moved up to six packs and four inch. I usually wait until they have a decent root ball before transplanting. It could be a month with the owl's clover. Oh well, the weather doesn't change much and they should be fine. We have not had nearly the fog this year.

Don't mention fog. Right now we are enjoying beautiful sunny weather and I always get depressed when the May gray-June gloom season hits!

What did you do to get them to sprout? I have tried planting seeds in the yard year after year with no success. I thought this might be the year, since we had so much rain, but nope.

Just did the regular routine, warm on a mix of perlite, coir and vermiculite, about 75 degrees, under a dome. About a third came up. They are still quite small, but growing. I got about the same germination rate as with Salvia apiana. They are outside now waiting to get transplanted.